Lot 1524

Description

Bank of Australasia, 'ONE' overlay on printed one pound notes, proof, unwatermarked paper, green on white, ONE in print spaced over five circles, (Vort-Ronald type two Fig. 60 for illustration one overlay for Ã…â€Å‣5 note with five circles, not in Spink Perkins Bacon Archive sale). Light folds and discolouration at right edge of note, otherwise nearly extremely fine, extremely rare and possibly unique in private hands.

Added colour to notes increasingly from the 1850's became used as a measure to prevent forgery. A range of geometric designs were often used, with some banks employing different designs for different denominations. That the Bank of Australasia used these overlay colour designs for many years, does indicate there success in preventing forgery. Green was selected for the one pound note as it was difficult to reproduce photographically, and appeared as black, in black and white photographs. Items like this were rarely available, as their use in the wrong hands would have allowed separate photographing and subsequently improved forgeries. Hence these overlays were zealously protected and few, if any others, are at present in collectors hands.